Prompt: “sensory overload, sensory sensitivities, sensory hyposensitivity, processing issues, etc…”
Oh, my. I have so much to talk about with this one.
I have all kind of sensory processing issues, dealing with basically every sense. I guess I’ll break this down by sense and talk about each on individually, otherwise I’ll never get through it.
This is mostly due to a non-autism-related eye condition, but I have very poor eyesight and extreme light sensitivity. On sunny days, I can’t even look up. It’s actually very annoying.
On the autism side of things, I am easily overloaded by things that flicker or waver, especially slightly (like florescent lights). I can’t stand bright white light, excessively bright colors, things that flash, etc. I always have the brightness on my electronics turned almost all the way off.
I have a hard time understanding “visual learning” techniques like graphs, diagrams and graphic organizers. They make no sense to me at all, and often leave me far more confused than if the instructions had just been written out.
This is by far the worst one for me. My auditory processing is bad enough that I have a hard time understanding people talking to me most of the time, expecially if I’m in a noisy space, or around other people who are talking. Sometimes I have to ask people to repeat themselves 5 or 6 times before it gets through my head. My brain can’t “prioritize” or filter out sounds. So the sound of the vents blowing, the lights buzzing and the conversation across the room are all just as important in my head as someone yelling my name.
I really hate high pitched and screechy sounds. White noise falls into this category for me, as does the sound trains make when slowing down on the tracks, microphone feedback, and of course nails on a chalkboard. Those sounds are so bad for me that they leave me feeling gross and on-edge for hours, and can single-handedly send me into overload. There’s also an entourage of other kinds of sounds I hate, but listing all of them would be too laborious.
On the positive side, I have excellent relative pitch. As a singer who can’t read music (symbols make no sense to me), I learn everything by ear to the point where I can memorize a song in an hour or less if I have to. Of course it would be better if I could read music, but I get by just fine. :)
This one isn’t as strong for me. There’s only a handful of textures that really make me gag, and more often I find textures that are really nice.
However, I am very touch averse. I find the feeling of physical contact absolutely horrifying, especially people touching my head, neck and forearms. If someone touches me unexpectedly, I get so uncomfortable that I freeze up. It’s like having bugs crawling on my skin. At the best of times, I’m okay with brief handshakes and there are a few close family members who I let hug me.
I don’t know why, but I really like the pressure input of wearing shoes and I’m uncomfortable going barefoot. Even in the summer, I prefer shoes and socks.
Speaking of summer, I really love heat and humidity. I know it’s hell for a lot of people, but my happy temperature is 70-80° Fahrenheit and preferably raining 💧☀️🌡
I memorize smells very easily and quickly form associations for them. My favorite smells are woodsy, spicy smells that remind me of forests, and ozone smells like rain, fog and frosty air. I like the smell of fresh plywood because it reminds me of building sets for plays.
I CANNOT be around the smell of marijuana, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, or nail polish. Certain perfumes also overpower me, especially cheap acrid floral scents. Anything astringent will make my lungs burn. I’d say bad smells are the leading cause of me having to leave places due to sensory overload. Even though I hate sounds more, the smells that trip me off are unfortunately common.
Taste isn’t really a sense of its own. It’s mostly based on smell and texture. That said, I’m hyposensitive to most flavors and prefer strong/spicy foods (as long as they’re not vinegary). I’m also not very picky, unlike many autistic people. There’s only a short list of foods I really can’t eat, and I love trying new foods. My favorite food is probably burritos.
Proprioceptive/Vestibular
I don’t really know what to say for these other than that a lot of my stim (rocking, spinning in chairs until I’m so dizzy the room tilts, bouncing my knees) are vestibular/ proprioceptive. I don’t know where I fall on the hyper/hyposensitive scale for these, but I think I may be hyposensitive due to the fact that I don’t know where “too much” input would be.
And that’s about it! There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t go over, but I’ll likely end up discussing it on another day of the challenge.
ellievsbear
jbbartram-illu
blakekathryn
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